US School Sued For Rs 9.5 Crore After Students Served Pretzels Contaminated With Oven Cleaner

More than 50 Students at a middle school in Oregon were served pretzels contaminated with an oven cleaner, a lawsuit filed by a family of one of the students has claimed. Tigard-Tualatin School District has been sued for $1 million (Rs 9.5 crore) after the child of the complainant fell sick from the snack during a school lunch break at Fowler Middle School.

The incident took place in October 2025 when the pretzels, "mistakenly contaminated with granulated oven cleaner," were served to dozens of sixth-graders for lunch. Quizzed at the time, the school district's director of communications said the incident was a result of "human error".

"We serve thousands of meals every day, and our first priority is always to protect the safety and well-being of our students," Alex Pulaski said. "In this instance, we erred, and we are working to rebuild trust as we conduct a full inquiry into what happened."

After eating pretzels coated with crushed Alto-Sham oven cleaner, which contains highly corrosive sodium hydroxide, a student, identified as LL, immediately felt a burning sensation in his mouth and throat, according to a report in New York Post.

The complaint filed last year in Washington County Circuit Court has also named the lead kitchen worker who put the caustic chemical cleaner, as well as Principal Cindy Pellicci.

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The lawsuit added that Poison Control was not contacted by the authorities until 11:03 am, about 27 minutes after staff realised what had happened. The first email to families was not sent until nearly two hours after students ate the pretzels.

The suit alleges the district failed to store caustic chemicals away from food, failed to train staff on handling them, and allowed a crushed cleaner puck to be left on a prep counter and then used as seasoning.